The Grasser Racing Lamborghini squad extended its championship lead with victory in the second round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Silverstone.
Christian Engelhart saw off a spirited challenge from Maximilian Buhk's HTP Motorsport Mercedes AMG-GT3 in the closing stages, with the German driver standing firm to take the chequered flag by 0.344 seconds.
Engelhart was joined on the top step of the podium by team-mates Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti, while Buhk celebrated a firm points finish with Jimmy Eriksson and Franck Perera.
The result marked Grasser Racing's fourth consecutive Blancpain GT Series victory, following its success at the Monza endurance round and the two sprint races held at Brands Hatch last weekend.
Bortolotti took the lead from the front row of the grid, sweeping around the outside of pole-sitter Felix Serralles in the #88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes AMG-GT3 at Copse.
The Italian then proceeded to draw out a large gap but a safety car period at the end of the first hour – caused by the Garage 59 McLaren which was tapped into a spin at Luffield – bunched the field up.
A second safety car intervention occurred a few minutes later when Jonny Kane's Strakka Racing McLaren pitched heavily into the barriers at Becketts, which allowed the #90 AKKA-ASP car to cycle into the lead with Michael Meadows behind the wheel.
"We took a big gamble in qualifying, saving all our sets of new tyres for the race," said Bortolotti.
"That helped us a lot because I managed to get a big start and open up a gap, but the safety car didn't help us at all because when we entered the pits it was a Full Course Yellow but then it turned into a safety car whilst we were changing drivers."
That shake-up relegated Caldarelli back into the chasing group, with Meadows' car becoming the chief AKKA-ASP entry after the #88 car encountered a stop-go penalty for improper conduct at the start.
Serralles had veered out of his lane and into Bortolotti on approach to the green flag, warranting a decision from the stewards. The Puerto Rican driver recovered to finish eleventh with team-mates Tristan Vautier and Daniel Juncadella.
Back at the front, Grasser Racing regained control during the final third of the race when Engelhart took the lead during the final round of pit stops that saw the top five cars come in together.
Buhk, having taken over from Eriksson, dropped to third but recovered by overtaking Marciello at Brooklands before setting off in pursuit of Engelhart.
The Mercedes factory GT driver closed in on his Lamborghini counterpart in traffic, but couldn't find the space to squeeze through.
Marciello followed the pair to take third for AKKA-ASP, with the former European F3 champion running a further two and a half seconds down the road.
Fourth was the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 of Davide Rigon/Victor Shaytar/Miguel Molina, which finished ahead of the Maxime Soulet/Andy Soucek/Vincent Abril Bentley Continental GT3 that started outside the top-20.
Pro-Am honours went to the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan driven by Patrick Kujala, Adrian Amstutz and Martin Kodrić which held off the Oman Racing Aston Martin Vantage by less than two seconds. The Am category was won by the #488 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari crew.
Next stop for the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup is the six-hour round at Paul Ricard on June 24th.
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